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They Paved Paradise

That's a good song, by the way, haha, but that's not what this is about.

This is about that strange, deep-seeded sadness I feel in my heart when I stand at the top of the cliff overlooking my city; a vast network of lights and asphalt full of disconnected, ignorant, wasteful consumers with no care in the world that this whole valley used to be beautiful once upon a time, before it became an urban metropolis suffocating Mother Nature's soil that lies deep beneath the surface. Then I feel kind of angry. Then I want to, like, destroy everything and rip everything up so that the Earth can breathe a little better hahaha. Then I feel silly.

We could've created floating roads and floating buildings and flying cars by now, all running on green, re-newable energy, in harmony with Nature....but noooo.

Re: They Paved Paradise

Originally Posted by faye_cat

Yeah, we definitely have dropped the ball on green energy and lifestyles. It's really disheartening.

Indeed; I hate not being able to see the stars at night because all the city lights are reflecting off of the smog layer from all the factories and cars. I almost miss the small farm in the middle of the arctic on which I spent most of my life; it was over a hundred miles away from anything that could be called a city haha. Crystal clear night skies. ...Lethally cold and almost perpetually dark too, but the Northern Lights almost made the winters tolerable...still, I'd rather relocate to a remote wilderness area that's somewhere a little closer to the equator. I've lived in Montana for a little over a year now; the winters definitely aren't nearly as bad as they were in Alaska haha; almost nobody got killed or decided to suicide themselves; it was eerie for me hahaha. My first orange Halloween too.

Re: They Paved Paradise

Originally Posted by Azvanna

Sorry, what’s the debate?

I'm not sure, but I believe it's about the impact of human development on the geographical landscape and how it is somehow connected to the decline of a spiritually driven conception of Nature as a nurturing motherly figure of sorts.

I've made my opinion public on this matter through my wordpress blog, but I think there is nothing motherly about nature, and nothing unnatural about mankind's impact on the planet. If anything, we are carrying nature's only real rule: keep surviving.

Re: They Paved Paradise

Originally Posted by Sean R. R.

Nature provided us with the elements to make the pavement.

Nature provided us with the elements to make the atomic bomb, too; doesn't mean we should make it haha. I believe we have the right to use what Nature provides, but that with every right there must also come a responsibility.

Originally Posted by Sean R. R.

I see Nature as going well beyond our little universe.

We came to exist out of sheer luck, a detail on nature's working, and with our ability, and some more luck, we'll pull through whatever gets thrown our way, even if we put obstacles ourselves.

Re: They Paved Paradise

I think your anger is misdirected. It's not the consumers you need to be mad at. It's the corporations that shelf good new, green, alternative solutions after buying up those patents, so they can continue to rake in the millions they make off of outdated, destructive, and diminishing resource reliant technology.

“Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture